The Home Office boasted of making the process ‘as quick and user-friendly as possible.’

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The app will be used to answer three ‘simple’ questions, take a selfie to be checked against Home Office records and then scan an applicants’ passport chip to verify their identity.

However, the Home Office has admitted to Metro.co.uk that the app only works on phones with the operating system Android 6.0, which was introduced in October 2015.

Android is used by Samsung, Huawei, Sony, Google and Nokia among others.

Devices older than October 2015 should work if they have installed the 6.0 update, also known as Marshmallow.

However, Apple and Blackberry devices cannot scan the passports – and those devices account for more than 50% of the market.

The new smartphone app only works on Android devices and not Apple (Picture: Getty)

Founder of campaign group EU Citizens Champion and History Professor at Northumbria University, Tanja Bueltmann, said: ‘There is no consideration for individual lives or the impact it is having on people.

‘I have no hope for the process. The Home Office has never been good at delivering.

‘I don’t see how it can work, especially when so many people won’t be able to use the app.

‘They will end up having to send their passports away or go to centres themselves.

‘Then with the volume of people, that will be absolutely impossible.’

The Home Office was aware of the problem early last year when the smartphone app was announced.

They were hoping Apple would release an update to its operating system that would allow users to scan their passports.

EU citizens without an Android phone can also travel long distances to an ID document scanning location (Graphic: Metro.co.uk)

Home Secretary Sajid Javid even took a trip to the firm’s offices in California to plead their case.

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The frustration between the Home Office and Apple was clear when immigration minister Caroline Nokes told a Home Affairs Committee at the end of last year that the Home Office was not to blame for the mess.

She said Apple ‘won’t release the upgrade we need in order for it to function.’

Advice on the gov.uk website simply says if applicants wish to scan their documents, they will have to use someone else’s phone or tablet to do it.

Otherwise, applicants can make a trek to one of 13 document scanning locations across the country – potentially at great expense and distance.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid even paid a visit to Silicon Valley to get Apple to change their operating system (Picture: Shutterstock)

They are scattered at locations around the country but for people living in areas such as the south west, East Anglia and northern Scotland, it is up to 260 miles by road to the nearest centre.

The locations are mostly register offices and are in Bath, Belfast, Caerphilly, Edinburgh, Hatfield, Hull, Lincoln, West Bromwich, Southampton, Stockton-on-Tees, Sale and two in London.

Last year, the Home Office conducted a trial run on around 650 NHS and higher education employees from the EU.

There was anecdotal evidence of departments buying in Android phones to help stricken staff attempt the process.

A larger trial run involving 15,500 members of the public has just been completed by the Home Office.

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They said 71% of the applications were granted settled status while the rest received pre-settled status.

Professor Tanja Bueltmann has said she has no faith in the Home Office to be able to carry out the task of processing applicants

A spokesman for the Home Office told Metro.co.uk there were both digital and non-digital options available for EU citizens needing to apply for the necessary post-Brexit UK immigration status.

He added: ‘The ongoing private test phase of the EU Settlement Scheme is providing us with vital and welcome feedback on the functionality of the system, including the beta version of the app, to help us make any necessary changes before the scheme is opened fully by 30 March 2019.

‘So far, the overwhelming majority of those starting applications on the app have completed them successfully.’